Debates, Democracy, Empire/ Imperialism, Identities, Islamophobia, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Conversations on Palestine: Teredide Mane O Baa Athithi

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Conversations on Palestine with an activist, a poet, a scholar

Teredide Mane O Baa Athithi (Come in, I have opened my doors dear guest) is an offshoot of Mere Ghar Aakar Toh Dekho, a national campaign in India, in Karnataka. It aims to counter the forces of hate, bigotry and polarization that have gained ground in the country by redrawing boundaries and expanding notions of trust and community. The campaign involves participants from diverse backgrounds opening their own homes and hearts to guests from equally varied locations. Teredide Mane has grown as a community, learning and unlearning through practice the concepts of guest and host, home and house, consent and comfort, celebration and sharing, listening and observing—both commonalities and diversity. [Content and editing by Madhu Bhushan, Winnu and Anita Cheria. Illustrations and design by Winnu]

We invite you into this moving and powerful conversation that has been reproduced largely in the speakers’ own words, and hope that you will add to it and take it forward. Read the whole conversation here (https://shorturl.at/JzvI5). Or a shorter note on the conversation here (https://shorturl.at/NkLHz).

Over the past months, the genocide in Palestine has come up multiple times in our meetings. Apart from engaging in acts of protest and solidarity, there was a need to go beyond ‘news noise’, and meet people engaged with and from Palestine. We decided to create a virtual space, one that was safe and intimate, to be able listen deeply to friends we had connected with in the course of our work and life journeys. This conversation, with Lisa Suhair Majaj, Smadar Lavie and Issa Samander in October, 2024, came about as a result of this intention.

Lisa Suhair Majaj is a passionate Palestinian American poet whose writings and poetry echo with the spirit of the land and people that she was herself exiled and alienated from.

Continue reading Conversations on Palestine: Teredide Mane O Baa Athithi →
Debates, Democracy, Government, Identities, Law, Politics, Refugee crisis

Assam: Arms Licenses to ‘Vulnerable Citizens’

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How saffrons are engaged in militarising Indian society not so surreptitiously.

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Flickr

“…though this be madness, yet there is method in it“?

-Polonious, in ‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare

Pushback of ‘alleged foreigners’ It was May end, when the Assam government led by Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Himanta Biswa Sarma, was in the news for its policy of pushback where it was found literally pushing what it termed as ‘illegal foreigners’ into Bangladesh.

What was noticeable was that when its controversial pushback policy came under the scanner of national and international human rights organisations, the Assam government approved another scheme that has raised new questions?

This was a ‘special’ scheme to make the border areas, especially those inhabited by indigenous people living in “vulnerable and remote areas”, safe. ..

.. ..it was basically to give arms licenses to people and those along the border with Bangladesh to “help them protect themselves.” [ Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/assam-arms-licenses-vulnerable-citizens]

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Democracy, Law, Movements, Politics

Review : ’And Quietly Comes the Dawn’

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The ‘Other Haryana’ Which Rarely Gets Discussed

BOOK REVIEW

And Quietly Comes the Dawn:
Haryana —Its Identity Issues, Grassroots Movements and Alternative Endeavours
by Tarun Kanti Bose

Kamgar Prakashan | https://kamgarprakashan.com

What image does one conjure up when Haryana finds mention anywhere !
It is the image of the millenium city Gurgaon – with offices of leading MNCs or neighbouring Nuh – the Muslim majority district with one of the lowest literacy rates in India or the dominant Jat peasantry, the growing gender imbalance in the society which even gets reflected in the phenomenon of purchasing of brides from Bihar or other areas, etc

Various cases of dalit oppression add another gloomy layer to the not so bright picture.

Rarely does one find voices of the ’other Haryana’ getting reflected in the public discourse.

….Writer, journalist, left activist Tarun Kanti Bose’s new book, ’ And Quietly Flows the Dawn : Haryana— Its Identity Issues, Grassroots Movements and Alternative Endeavours breaks a new ground in this dominant discourse and brings before us many such unheard voices.

( Read the full review here : https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article15848.html )

Culture, Debates, Democracy, Education, Government, Right watch

बच्चों के लिए सैनिक प्रशिक्षण : आखिर महाराष्ट्र सरकार की यह नई योजना क्यों एक चिन्तित करने वाली पहल है ?

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‘मैंने जापान में जनता को अपनी स्वतंत्रता की सीमाएं अपनी सरकार द्वारा स्वेच्छा से स्वीकार करते हुए देखा है…लोग इस सर्वव्यापी मानसिक दासता को प्रसन्नता और गर्व के साथ स्वीकार करते हैं क्योंकि वे अपने आपको शक्ति की एक मशीन, जिसे राष्ट्र कहा जाता है, में बदलने की तीव्र इच्छा रखते हैं…’ 

-रवीन्द्रनाथ ठाकुर, ‘नेशनलिज्म’  

बच्चों के लिए फौजी तालीम !

भारतीय संघ के सबसे समृद्ध सूबा कहलाने वाले महाराष्ट्र ने स्कूली शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में एक नयी पहल हाथ में ली है। वह स्कूली छात्रों के लिए कक्षा 1 से ही बुनियादी फौजी प्रशिक्षण देना शुरू करेगा ताकि बच्चों में ‘देशभक्ति, अनुशासन और बेहतर शारीरिक स्वास्थ्य की नींव डाली जा सके।’ एक स्थूल अनुमान के हिसाब से चरणबद्ध तरीके से लागू की जाने वाली इस योजना में लगभग ढाई लाख सेवानिवृत्त  सैनिकों को तैनात किया जाएगा। …..

यह प्रस्ताव कई स्तरों पर चिन्तित करने वाला है:
 
एक, जैसा कि जानकारों एवं शिक्षा शास्त्रियों ने बताया है कि राज्य का शिक्षा जगत एक जटिल संकट से गुजर रहा है, जिसका प्रतिबिम्बन कमजोर होती अवरचना / इन्फ्रास्टक्चर /infrastructure, अध्यापकों की कमी और नीतियों को लागू करने के रास्ते में आने वाली प्रचंड बाधाओं में उजागर होता है। ..अगर सरकार की तरफ से कक्षा एक से आगे फौजी प्रशिक्षण प्रदान करने की योजना को लागू किया गया तो उसका असर स्कूली शिक्षा के लिए आवंटित किए जा रहे संसाधनों में अधिक कटौती में दिखाई देगा।

[ Read the full article here :https://janchowk.com/military-training-for-children-why-is-this-new-scheme-of-maharashtra-government-a-worrying-initiative/]

Ecology/Environment, Capitalism, Countryside, Violence/Conflict, Democracy, Development

The Everyday Ecological Justice Struggles Across India to save Commons, Humans & All Species: NACEJ

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[We are publishing below a report of a press conference by the NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR CLIMATE AND ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE that details the status of struggles for ecological justice from across the country. Lifting the mask off ritualistic official observances of the World Environment Day, while the government continues to wreak havoc on the ecology and the commons, this report gives a sense of the struggles in different parts of the country. At the end of this report is the link to its full online recording.]

As the world marked yet another Environment Day on 5th June, the National Alliance for Climate and Ecological Justice (NACEJ), a pan Indian forum of NAPM, brought together voices from different parts of the country in an online press conference on 6th June, to share the current status of ecological justice struggles. Speakers from Kashmir, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Odisha, and other states addressed the Press Conference. These voices reinforced the reality that both the Central Govt and different states governments are majorly complicit in environmental violations, enabling large profiteering, extractive agendas of mega-corporations, unleashing repression on democratic movements. Moderated by well-known environmental activist Soumya Dutta, the meeting saw good participation from both media and movements.

Continue reading The Everyday Ecological Justice Struggles Across India to save Commons, Humans & All Species: NACEJ →
Culture, Debates, Democracy, Education, Government, Language, Politics

Maharashtra: Military Training for School Children!

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Why this latest move by the state government is a worrying development.

“I have seen in Japan the voluntary submission of the whole people to the trimming of their minds and clipping of their freedom by their government, which through various educational agencies regulates their thoughts, manufactures their feelings, becomes suspiciously watchful when they show signs of inclining toward the spiritual, leading them through a narrow path not toward what is true but what is necessary for the complete welding of them into one uniform mass according to its own recipe. The people accept this all-pervading mental slavery with cheerfulness and pride because of their nervous desire to turn themselves into a machine of power, called the Nation, and emulate other machines in their collective worldliness.”

-Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism

The richest state in the Indian union, Maharashtra, has embarked on a new initiative in the field of school education. It would provide basic military training to school students starting from Class 1, to promote  “patriotism, discipline, and physical fitness among young learners from an early age”. Around 2.5 lakh ex-servicemen would be involved to deliver this training which will be introduced in a phased manner.

Undoubtedly, in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, this proposal will be able to gather enough eyeballs in the rest of the country and it would not be surprise that few other Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states would implement similar schemes in education.

This proposal is worrying at many levels. ( Read the full article here :https://www.newsclick.in/maharashtra-military-training-school-children)

Capitalism, Left watch, Movements, Politics

Marxist Coordination Committee and Lal Nishan Party Merge with CPI(ML) Liberation: Dipankar Bhattacharya

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[In two very significant developments in the non-mainstream Left, the Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) of the Dhanbad-Jharkhand region and the Lal Nishan Party (LNP) of Maharashtra merged with the CPI(ML) Liberation. While the merger with the took place in September 2024, the one with the LNP happened on 31 May 2025. What is really significant about these two developments is that both the MCC and the LNP, in different ways moved away from orthodox thinking from the beginning. It is not surprising then that they decided to merge with the CPI(ML) Liberation, which in my reckoning, has made some very significant departures from orthodoxy on a range of issues concerning the Indian social and political scene (as also on matters such as democracy and climate change). It is no wonder then that while the MCC, founded by the legendary AK Roy, had developed strong ties of the trade unions in the colliery with the larger adivasi Jharkhandi society, the LNP in its time, distinguished itself by standing by and campaigning for Ambedkar in the early 1950s.

Here we reproduce two pieces by CPI(ML) General Secretary DIPANKAR BHATTACHARYA published in their journal Liberation. The pieces separately discuss the two mergers. – AN]

Lal Nishan Party’s Unification with CPI(ML): Towards a Stronger Communist Movement to Defeat the Fascist Offensive

To defeat the growing fascist offensive, India today urgently needs a stronger presence and role of the Left. The merger of the Lal Nishan Party of Maharashtra with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), announced at a unity conference in Shrirampur on 31 May, marks an encouraging step in this direction. This unification brings together two great legacies of India’s communist movement in a state which has historically been the cradle of the quest for social equality. Maharashtra also happens to be the ideological fountainhead of Indian fascism and every advance of the communist movement in Maharashtra today has great value. The unification of LNP and CPI(ML) therefore evokes a lot of hope in the centenary year of India’s organised communist movement.

Continue reading Marxist Coordination Committee and Lal Nishan Party Merge with CPI(ML) Liberation: Dipankar Bhattacharya →
Culture, Debates, Democracy, Everyday Life, Identities, Islamophobia, Politics

Will Asjad Babu Get Justice in Today’s India

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“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them”

– George Elliot (English Novelist and Poet, 1819-1880)

Firdaus Alam alias Asjad Babu – age 24 years – is dead.

Details of this cold blooded killing have appeared in a section of the media and make chilling reading. (1)

Asjad – a native of a village in Kishenganj district of Bihar, married hardly 7 months back, worked as a tailor in Panipat, Haryana.That tragic evening, he was sitting with his friends including his brother Asad Raza in a playground when the accused approached him and started mocking him for wearing a skullcap.

None of the friends had any personal enmity with the accused Narendra alias “Susu Lala”.When confronted, he felt further agitated and attacked Asjad with a knife, inflicting serious fatal injuries.

Death of Asjad is no ordinary death.

It appears to be a hate crime.

Hate crime is a special crime where a person is targeted just because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s colour, look, dress, which reveals the person’s community, religion or belief etc. One does not know whether the police or the law-and-order machinery would be ready to acknowledge this brutal murder as a hate crime (2) because that would entail stricter charges, which may be followed by stricter punishment.

What is even more disturbing, is to note that killings, like that of Asjad have become commonplace. ( Read the full article here : https://countercurrents.org/2025/06/will-asjad-babu-get-justice-in-todays-india/)

Countryside, Democracy, Development, Ecology/Environment

Stop Forcible Dam Activity and Militarization in Siang Valley – Safeguard Ecology & Uphold Indigenous People’s Rights: Solidarity with Arunachal’s Indigenous Farmers

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Following is a statement of All India Solidarity with Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum, endorsed by 43 organizations and fifty individuals.

The Siang river in Upper Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh. Photo courtesy Anupam Chakravartty, Down to Earth

We, the undersigned, express our solidarity with the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum (SIFF), which has been spearheading the people’s protest against the proposed 11,500 MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP) of the National Hydro-electric Power Corporation (NHPC) in Arunachal Pradesh, which will be disastrous for this whole area. We support the demands of SIFF for withdrawal of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) deployed in Beging village for doing the Pre-Feasibility Report (PFR) of the project.

Continue reading Stop Forcible Dam Activity and Militarization in Siang Valley – Safeguard Ecology & Uphold Indigenous People’s Rights: Solidarity with Arunachal’s Indigenous Farmers →
Democracy, Everyday Life, Identities, Politics, Right watch

Stop This Insanity in the Name of Patriotism: Axom Nagarik Samaj

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Statement by AXOM NAGARIK SAMAJ on the targeting of minorities today

Are we witnessing a textbook case of fascist tendencies being practised in Assam? How long can a section of religious minorities will be subjected to all kinds of atrocities and humiliation by branding them as Bangladeshi foreigners? They are being harassed and humiliated all the time. We have been told time and again that they are the cause of all our evils and they are a threat to our existence. How can the victims turn into victors? What a classic case of distorted logic.

We had a six-year-long Assam movement to get rid of the Bangladeshi foreigners. Then overnight AASU turned into AGP and ruled Assam for ten long years. Thereafter came  the Congress government which ruled Assam for 15 years when the present chief minister was in charge of the implementation of the Assam Accord. Then there was that famous declaration of Modi that all Bangladeshi foreigners would have to leave Assam with their baggage by 16 May, 2014. Now the BJP has been in power for the last 10 years. Nothing happened. Instead, the CAA was brought in to grant citizenship to a section of linguistic minorities. Come any elections, blame the religious minorities and do all kinds of nasty things to them and use them to win the votes of the majority community. The brandishing a particular religion as a threat and criminalizing the religious minorities has become a well-known tactic of the Hindutva brigade. Now they are going to issue weapons to the indigenous people against the religious minorities. Have we seen any civil war-like situation anywhere in Assam? Then why do you have to do this? Why promote this communal hatred and create tension among the common people? It is heartening that the people in Assam have generally maintained peace, except for a few minor incidents here and there, and have remained calm while maintaining amity among themselves everywhere in the state.

We appeal to all right-thinking people including the Opposition political parties and civil society organizations to condemn and oppose this nefarious design of the ruling combine. 

Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, President Paresh Malakar, General Secretary

Axom Nagarik Samaj

Democracy, Empire/ Imperialism, Government, Identities, Right watch

The Racist Conspiracy Theory of “White Genocide” and Trump’s Supposed “Ambush” of Cyril Ramaphosa

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Today happens to be Africa day and my friend Professor Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni reminds us in a social media post that Africa’s is still a liberation struggle, for “strategic natural resources (minerals. oil, and others) are on the soil of Africa but not yet in our hands.” Something of how Africa is still sought to be kept in subjugation was evident in Trump’s meeting with the South African President in the White House recently.

Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters, before the 2024 elections. Photo: EFF, courtesy Mail and Guardian

What happened in the White House meeting between POTUS Donald Trump and the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa three days ago was quite appalling even for a non-South African to watch. The whole thing was a repeat performance, but far more humiliating, of what Trump and JD Vance had done with Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukranian President. This meeting is being described as Trumps’ “ambush” of Ramaphosa. What is more, timed with this ambush was a staged “arrival” of some 49 families – men, women and children – claiming to be “farmers” fleeing the “white genocide” in South Africa. They were welcomed by US officials at the airport saying things like “Welcome to the United States, the land of freedom. It is such a pleasure to welcome you here” and so on.

Continue reading The Racist Conspiracy Theory of “White Genocide” and Trump’s Supposed “Ambush” of Cyril Ramaphosa →
Democracy, Government, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

भारत-पाकिस्तान की तनातनी पर सीएफडी का वक्तव्य

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सिटीजन्स फॉर डेमोक्रेसी ने निम्नलिखित बयान 17 मई को नई दिल्ली में जारी किया।

सिटीजन्स फॉर डेमोक्रेसी ने पहलगाम में हुए भयानक आतंकी हमले के बाद अपनी चिंता व्यक्त की है कि यह हत्याकांड विश्व शांति के लिए खतरा है और इसके परिणाम स्वरूप, अंतर्राष्ट्रीय कानून के शासन में और अधिक गिरावट आने की संभावना है, इतना ही नहीं, भारत के  लोकतंत्र के लिए  भी गंभीर ख़तरा पैदा हुआ है।

पहलगाम में जो कुछ हुआ, वह निस्संदेह राजनीतिक उद्देश्यों को प्राप्त करने के लिए आतंक का उपयोग था और स्थानीय कश्मीरी मुसलमानों के नेतृत्व में भारतीय आबादी के सभी वर्गों ने इसकी निंदा की। कश्मीरी मुसलमान पीड़ितों की सहायता के लिए आगे आए और इस कृत्य के खिलाफ बड़े पैमाने पर प्रदर्शन किए। हालाँकि, भारत सरकार की प्रतिक्रिया न तो संयमित थी और न ही संतुलित थी, बल्कि सत्तारूढ़ भारतीय जनता पार्टी और संघ परिवार की विचारधारा और घरेलू राजनीतिक उद्देश्यों से प्रेरित थी। हालाँकि प्रधान मंत्री  सऊदी अरब की अपनी यात्रा  अधूरी छोड़ कर  वापस आ गए, लेकिन सरकार द्वारा बुलाई गई सभी दलों की बैठक में उपस्थित नहीं रहे। सर्वदलीय बैठक में पहलगाम में हुई सुरक्षा चूक के बारे में खुल कर जानकारी नहीं दी गई, न ही जांच की कोई रूपरेखा घोषित की गई। दोष का ठीकरा तुरंत पाकिस्तान पर फोड़ा गया, साथ ही सिंधु जल संधि को स्थगित करने जैसी कार्रवाई की गई, जिससे कुछ आतंकवादियों की कथित हरकतों के लिए सभी पाकिस्तानी लोगों को सामूहिक सजा दी गई। संयुक्त राष्ट्र सुरक्षा परिषद में पेश करने के लिए आतंकवादी हमले में पाकिस्तान की साँठगाँठ के  कोई ठोस सबूत जुटाने का प्रयास नहीं किया गया।

Continue reading भारत-पाकिस्तान की तनातनी पर सीएफडी का वक्तव्य →
Feminism, Government, Left watch, Movements, Politics, Public health

The Denigration of Women Workers Fuels State Neglect: Complaint Against the CITU (Kerala) to the WFTU

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Attention:
General Secretary, WFTU secretariat@wftucentral.org
Women’s Committee women@wftucentral.org
Asia Pacific Regional Office wftuasiapacific@gmail.com; c.srikumaraidef@gmail.com


Subject:
Complaint against CITU and AITUC (Kerala, India) for their sexist remarks and non-cooperation with
KAHWA women workers in violation of WFTU Constitution


Reference (WFTU Constitution):

Continue reading The Denigration of Women Workers Fuels State Neglect: Complaint Against the CITU (Kerala) to the WFTU →
Democracy, Government, Violence/Conflict

Statement on India-Pakistan hostilities by Citizens for Democracy

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The following statement issued by the Citizens for Democracy in New Delhi on 17 May 2025 on the war and its aftermath.

Citizens for Democracy expresses its alarm at the aftermath of the horrific terror attack in Pahalgam, which endangers world peace and leads to further breakdown in the rule of international law, as well as poses a further threat to democracy within India itself.

What happened in Pahalgam was undoubtedly the use of terror to achieve political objectives and it was rightly condemned by all sections of the Indian population, led by local Kashmiri Muslims themselves, who rushed to the aid of the victims and held huge demonstrations against the act. The response of the Government of India was, however, neither measured nor balanced, but was dictated by the ideology and domestic political objectives of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh Parivar. Though the Prime Minister cut short his visit to Saudi Arabia and rushed back, he did not address the meeting of all parties that was convened by the government itself. In the all-party meeting, the major security lapses in Pahalgam which allowed the terror attack to happen were not adequately explained, nor was any modality of enquiry announced. The finger of blame was immediately pointed at Pakistan, along with actions like putting the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, thereby inflicting collective punishment on all Pakistani people for the purported action of a few terrorists. No effort was made to gather hard evidence to show the Pakistani state’s involvement in the terror attack and present to the UN Security Council.

Continue reading Statement on India-Pakistan hostilities by Citizens for Democracy →
Culture, Debates, Democracy, Education, Government, Religion, Right watch

UP: Ramayana, Vedic Workshops in Govt Schools Challenged

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Why the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government’s move of using public funds for imparting religious instruction violates Article 28 of the Constitution.

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Pexels

“No religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly maintained out of State Funds” unless “established under any endowment or trust which requires that religious instruction shall be imparted in such institution”. (Article 28 of the Indian Constitution)

It has been more than 75 years since the founding fathers (and mothers) of the Constitution took this bold stand when they were shaping the guidelines around which the newly independent country would move forward. ..

…..Much water has flown down the Ganges, the Jamuna and all rivers of the country and it appears that slowly, but not so silently, attempts are on to water down the provisions of this Article and facilitating religious instruction in government schools through the back door.

The manner in which Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh has suddenly decided to hold summer workshops on the Ramayana and the Vedas in government schools across the state, without any broader consultation with the stakeholders involved in this endeavour, is symptomatic of the brazen attitude of the government. We are told that these workshops will be organised under the aegis of the International Ramayana and Vedic Research Institute, Ayodhya, and will include activities, like Ramlila, Ramcharitmanas recitation, Vedic chanting, painting, and mask-making.

As expected, this retrograde move by the Yogi government has generated anger among the broad masses as well as concerned citizens, who have demanded that this move be immediately rescinded. ( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/ramayana-vedic-workshops-govt-schools-challenged )

Culture, Debates, Democracy, Government, Islamophobia, Right watch

Two Minute Silence for Amir Pathan!

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Life in Latur, a city in Maharashtra, known for its historical monuments is normal again. There was little commotion more than ten days back in one part of the city following the suicide of a senior executive with a telecom company who had resorted to this extreme step a day after a road rage incident when he allegedly faced communal slurs. Looking back what followed on that day was nothing unusual by Indian standards. ( Read the rest of the article here : https://countercurrents.org/2025/05/two-minute-silence-for-amir-pathan/)

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आमिर पठान के लिए दो मिनट का मौन !
Culture, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

The Troll Army’s Inglorious War: Alok Ranjan

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Guest post by ALOK RANJAN

Image courtesy Satish Acharya

Given its organizational form and nourishment, it is difficult to imagine that the troll machine can genuinely feel. But it has been trained in demonstrations of outrage. One section of the online machine felt betrayed by the declaration of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Shocked by the ‘premature’ end of what was desired as a ‘decisive’ war, it lamented that the background conditions of an avenging solidarity and armed forces’ bravery were left under-utilised as Pakistan remained one nation, unlike its split during Indira Gandhi’s time in 1971.  

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Feminism, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Urgent Call for Peace by Indian and Pakistani Feminists​

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The ceasefire is just the first step in the long walk to justice and peace​

In a show of historic cross-border feminist solidarity for peace, over 10 organizations and approximately 1000 people have come together to issue a powerful statement calling for immediate de-escalation, dialogue, and justice in the wake of renewed hostilities between the two nations. The signatories include feminists, peace activists, artists, journalists, academics, students, grassroots organizers and  other professionals from India and Pakistan.

11 May 2025

We, feminists from India and Pakistan, unequivocally welcome the ceasefire declared by our two nations today. The tension and escalation of the last fortnight remind us of how fragile peace is. The ceasefire is also a vindication of calls for de-escalation and peace by lakhs of ordinary people on both sides of the border. Even as we hope this indicates an absolute cessation of hostilities, we recall the recent events. 

We condemn the terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 25 tourists visiting Kashmir from different parts of India and one from Nepal. One local person also lost his life in the Pahalgam attack. The targeted attacks deepened the communal divide between Muslims and Hindus in India and were exploited to incite hatred, fear, and calls for collective punishment.

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, it is the women—including as mothers, daughters, sisters, wives—who are left holding the unbearable weight of grief. Instead of respecting and sharing it, it has been weaponized and policed—especially when it refuses to follow the script of hate. Himanshi Narwal, the young widow of one of the slain victims, was among the survivors who amid unimaginable pain still found the strength to appeal for peace. She asked people not to direct their rage against Kashmiris and Muslims who, like her, are trapped in a cycle of violence they did not create. For that simple act of humanity, she has been trolled, vilified, and attacked by chest-thumping nationalists more committed to blood lust than truth. 

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Culture, Debates, Education, Law

Why a 3-Year-Old Child’s Death Will Haunt us For a Long Time

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Keeping aside disagreement about customs like ‘Santhara’, one can at least agree that only an adult can make a decision to opt for death voluntarily in times of sickness.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer

Namrata (name changed), the three-year-old daughter of IT professionals from Indore, is dead.

She had brain tumour which was successfully operated upon in January in Mumbai but it relapsed in March, and within less than a week, she breathed her last.

Apropos nothing seems amiss in her story.

The child got the best treatment available, and for her parents, belonging to Jain community, money was never a problem.

Despite all these relevant details, it is rather difficult to forget or disremember the past few hours of her life when she was still alive, when she must have been in tremendous pain and the way she was made to undergo some ritual to ‘improve her next birth’ — as impressed upon her parents by their spiritual leader.

We learnt that instead of hospital bed, where she should have been given palliative care, the child was shifted to the ashram of one Maharaj, a Jain monk, who had convinced his gullible disciples – her parents – to opt for Santhara “to decrease her suffering and improve her next birth”.

And these young IT professionals, barely in their 30s, had no qualms in shifting their dying daughter to the ashram, despite knowing full well that she was in tremendous pain and any sudden change would exacerbate her death. [ Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/why-3-year-old-childs-death-will-haunt-us-long-time]

Culture, Democracy, Media politics, Politics

Axom Nagarik Samaj Condemns the Attacks on Independent Media Platforms

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The following is a statement issued by AXOM NAGARIK SAMAJ

Axom Nagarik Samaj condemns the banning of independent media platforms

Guwahati, 10 May: The terrorist attack at Pahalgam was an act of cowardice. To retaliate this the Indian armed forces conducted the ‘Operation Sindoor’ and destroyed several terrorist establishments inside Pakistan. Indian public and political parties irrespective of their ideological affiliation stood solidly behind our armed forces. It goes without saying that the national security of the country is of paramount importance. There shouldn’t be any let up in it. However, on the pretext of escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan there shouldn’t be any curtailment of freedom of expression which is a fundamental right. But unfortunately government of India has done exactly that by banning and blocking ‘4pm’ News Network, the YouTube channel of Punya Prasun Bajpai and ‘The Wire’. These are all truth speaking, independent and trust worthy media platforms. In the time of war mongering, spreading of fake news and falsehood by most of the mainstream electronic media, they tried to report and inform public objectively and truthfully. These platforms are manned by best of professional journalists in the country. What government has done is nothing but gagging of the independent media which is utterly harmful for a democracy. We condemn this and demand that the banning and blocking of all the three media platforms are withdrawn immediately. 

Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, President,

Paresh Malakar, General Secretary 

Axom Nagarik Samaj

Capitalism, Debates, Decolonizing Theory, Democracy, Empire/ Imperialism, Scams

‘The Old is Dying’ – Notes on the Global Crisis of Democracy

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Reflecting on what he called the “crisis of authority” or the “crisis of hegemony” from inside Mussolini’s prison, Antonio Gramsci had observed,

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” (Selections from the Prison Notebooks, International Publishers, 1971, p. 276)

Reduced by Slavoj Zizek to a meaningless tweet that substitutes the last part with his own pop culture expression “now is the time of monsters”, it has become a kind of substitute for thinking what the crisis actually is all about.

Gramsci in fact, was hardly talking about pop culture “monsters”. He was thinking about a very new phenomenon of his time but which has become far more serious today – the crisis of the political party. The crisis of hegemony is tied in his above reflections, to the fact that “the great masses have become detached from their traditional ideologies and no longer believe in what they used to believe previously etc.” (SPN: 276)

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